Notre Dame Academy’s club, Allies for Positive Peer Pressure (APPP), is attempting to help students make healthy lifestyle choices.

Today, the eating and physical pattern of most Americans has become a cause of concern. This concern is what provoked NDA’s APPP to provide a wellness challenge for the student body. 

“I think that there are a lot of students interested. Even if people don’t follow the weekly challenge exactly, it at least gets people thinking of doing healthier things like drinking more water,” said APPP member Catherine Schaupp.

There are a variety of different “challenges” for the students to take on, such as drinking a half-gallon of water a day, taking 30 minutes of time for themselves to relax and not consuming French fries in the cafeteria.

“I think the hardest part for most people is taking time for themselves. Everyone is so busy in high school with studying, sports and activities,” said Schaupp.

These challenges aren’t only difficult for the students, but also the teachers and staff who participated in a wellness challenge at the beginning of the school year.

“I thought the wellness challenge did a great job of getting me to be more aware of the choices I made in my everyday life, both healthy and unhealthy. For me, taking time for myself to relax was really hard. I coach girls golf in the fall, boys basketball in the winter, and boys golf in the spring, as well as teach math. To find time in between all of that was really difficult,” said NDA math teacher Brian Bobinski.

It was the effort that the teachers put into the Wellness Challenge that really helped spark an interest in the student body.

“I always saw the teachers with those step trackers and I think that is what got me personally so interested in doing this. I was curious about that and wanted to look more into it,” said Shaupp.

Thanks to the interest and effort put into the wellness challenge from Schaupp and the APPP leaders, other students have had the opportunity to practice healthy living.

“It actually has been very successful the last two weeks. We were pleasantly surprised by the number of forms we collected from the homerooms,” said Schaupp.

With just the simplest changes in their lifestyles, students have already seen an impact on their lifestyles.

“I did the first week challenge which was to drink a half-gallon of water every day. I am always working out and playing hockey every day, and I am not very good about drinking a lot of water. It seems like a stupid thing to say, but I never noticed the effect it had on me. After I did this for just one week, I was already less tired in school, and I was able to perform at a much higher level in my training,” said NDA senior Tim Davison.

“I think since we have had such a great turnout, APPP will do it in years to come,” said Schaupp.